Here are the verses:

8“Take the rod; and you and your brother Aaron assemble the congregation and speak to the rock before their eyes, that it may yield its water. You shall thus bring forth water for them out of the rock and let the congregation and their beasts drink.” 9So Moses took the rod from before the LORD, just as He had commanded him; 10and Moses and Aaron gathered the assembly before the rock. And he said to them, “Listen now, you rebels; shall we bring forth water for you out of this rock?” 11Then Moses lifted up his hand and struck the rock twice with his rod; and water came forth abundantly, and the congregation and their beasts drank. 12But the LORD said to Moses and Aaron, “Because you have not believed Me, to treat Me as holy in the sight of the sons of Israel, therefore you shall not bring this assembly into the land which I have given them.” 13Those were the waters of Meribah, because the sons of Israel contended with the LORD, and He proved Himself holy among them.

http://www.tanach.org/bamidbar/chukat/shiur1a.htm

http://www.tanach.org/bamidbar/chukat/shiur1b.htm (Part two.)

Questions to keep in mind when analyzing the sin at Meriva. a) why didnt he try to talk to the rock? c) what did Aharon do wrong that he could not enter the land either?! d) it worked! why did God let it work if Moshe messed up? (Ramban on Rashi) e) If the sin was hitting the rock instead of speaking to it (because speaking would have shown a miracle (Rashi); is hitting a rock and having water emerge less of a miracle?! (Ramban, ” ” “) f) why did Hashem ask him to take the staff if he was not supposed to use it? (Ramban ” ” ” ) g) According to Rambam, Moshe’s never gotten angry before with the nation?! [See, for example, last week’s parsha when he says “How can I carry these people? Other places also. –OK, maybe this time he directed it more to the people…) Anyway, the Ramban does not like Rambam because God responds to Moshe, You did not believe in me! Rambam’s explaination does not jive with this.

The Mizrachi and Gur Aryeh (commentators of Rashi) have answers for Rashi, I have not looked at them yet.

In addition, Rav Yeruchem Levevoitz adds to the Ramban’s own explanation of the sin- which is that Moshe did not make it clear that God was the source of the water. Verse 10 has Moshe srhtorically asking Shall we bring…. As if they themselves could perform miracles. This is what angered God.

Rav Yeruchem notes that Moshe’s actions are in line with the corollary of a gemara. The gemara states That whoever mentions someting in the name io the one who said it originally brings redemption to he world. However, says Rav yeruchem, if one fails to mention where he or she gets the information from, perhaps they unfortunately slow down the redemption process. Since Moshe did not mention God’s name here, he was punished with not being a bigger part of the redemption, (which would have been) leading Bnei Yisrael into Israel.

I always say that, lately at least, 90% of these divrei Torah are from Rabbi Shalom Rosner of Israel. He, in turn, always quotes from the earlier commentator’s.

This dvar Torah was from Rav Rosner as well.

Good Shabbos from home.

Yaakov

The parsha deals with the subject of the mekalel, the one who blasphemed God. Before Moshe asked God what should be done with this person, he put the mekalel in ‘jail’ as he awaited God’s decion, as the pasukim below show.

10 Now the son of an Israelite mother and an Egyptian father went out among the Israelites, and a fight broke out in the camp between him and an Israelite. 11 The son of the Israelite woman blasphemed the Name with a curse; so they brought him to Moses. (His mother’s name was Shelomith, the daughter of Dibri the Danite.) 12 They put him in custody until the will of the LORD should be made clear to them. 13 Then the LORD said to Moses: 14 “Take the blasphemer outside the camp. All those who heard him are to lay their hands on his head, and the entire assembly is to stone him. 15 Say to the Israelites: ‘If anyone curses his God, he will be held responsible; 16 anyone who blasphemes the name of the LORD must be put to death. The entire assembly must stone him. Whether an alien or native-born, when he blasphemes the Name, he must be put to death. 17 ” ‘If anyone takes the life of a human being, he must be put to death. 18 Anyone who takes the life of someones animal must make restitution—life for life. 19 If anyone injures his neighbor, whatever he has done must be done to him: 20 fracture for fracture, eye for eye, tooth for tooth. As he has injured the other, so he is to be injured. 21 Whoever kills an animal must make restitution, but whoever kills a man must be put to death. 22 You are to have the same law for the alien and the native-born. I am the LORD your God.’ ” 23 Then Moses spoke to the Israelites, and they took the blasphemer outside the camp and stoned him. The Israelites did as the LORD commanded Moses. A couple questions. Moshe didn’t know what should be done with such a person!? He learned virtually the entire Torah straight from God! Why did he have to ask? Another question is that right after Moshe asks God about the blasphemer, God tells Moshe some seemingly random laws: if one kills another, he is killed. If one injures another, he must pay restitution. What is the message taught by this interruption?

The answer given is that before we can punish someone we must evaluate our intentions and feelings. If we have a feeling of haughtiness, of hatred, we cannot properly punish someone else. Punishment must come from a sense of love for the other person. Thus, the laws about mortality. God is teaching the Jewish People and Moshe that before a man is rightfully killed, I want to show that a human life is immensely important in My eyes, as My creation. If one is slayed, the murderer must be killed in return to show that the value of a human life is so important. (We see that even in that case, when the murderer himself is put to death, those that kill him must recognize the graveness of the matter.)

Only after Moshe realized the importance of a life and the seriousness of the situation, could he properly administer death to the blasphemer. The Jewish People should throw stones at him because he is deserving of death, but they must do so out of love and respect. One can only hit if he can also hug.

(Rabbi Schneider did not answer the first question, but it seems that perhaps God specifically withheld this Law from him until now to demonstrate this point.)

Yaakov

(Courtesy of Rabbi Avi Schneider of Yeshivat Torat Shraga)

In making his suggestion, Yitro says “וְהָיָה כָּל-הַדָּבָר הַגָּדֹל יָבִיאוּ אֵלֶיךָ, וְכָל-הַדָּבָר הַקָּטֹן יִשְׁפְּטוּ-הֵם (and it shall be, that every great matter they shall bring to you [Moshe], but every small matter they will judge themselves).” When Moshe actually implements the advice, however, the Pasuk says “אֶת-הַדָּבָר הַקָּשֶׁה יְבִיאוּן אֶל-מֹשֶׁה, וְכָל-הַדָּבָר הַקָּטֹן יִשְׁפּוּטוּ הֵם (and the hard matters they brought to Moshe and the small matters they judged themselves)”. What is the significance of the word change between הַדָּבָר הַגָּדֹל (the great matters) and הַדָּבָר הַקָּשֶׁה (the hard matters)?

The Mechilta quotes a disagreement between Rabbi Yehoshua and Rabbi Elazar. Rabbi Yehoshua says that Moshe certainly did exactly what Yitro suggested he do, while Rabbi Elazar said that Moshe took the advice of his father-in-law, but in the end modified it a little per Hashem’s command.

According to the opinion of Rabbi Elazar, then, we can easily understand the word change. While Yitro wanted Moshe to judge the important matters, Moshe felt it was more important for him to take the hard cases, regardless of the importance of its litigants.

According to Rabbi Yehoshua, however, if Moshe did exactly what Yitro suggested, why did the Torah choose to use a different word to explain the outcome?

The Rashbam comments on the words כָּל-הַדָּבָר הַגָּדֹל (all the great matters) and says that these “great matters” are people coming to build their relationships with Hashem. The small matters therefore would be standard court litigation without any real spiritual growth involved.

With this idea, in mind, Rabbi Yehoshua now seems to make sense as we can understand that these “great matters” are one and the same with the hard matters. Figuring out whether Reuven owes Shimon money may be complicated but doesn’t compare in difficulty to helping Levi grow as a person.

Unfortunately, according to the Rashbam, Rabbi Elazar is now quite challenging. If the “great matters” are working on developing peoples’ relationships with Hashem, why wasn’t the advice of Yitro good advice? Why did Moshe still feel the need to modify his advice.

The Ba’al Haturim comes to the rescue by totally changing the meaning of the words הַדָּבָר הַקָּשֶׁה (the hard matters). He says that the truly hard matters are managing those court cases of the most important people, as they are the most “stiff-necked” of everyone.

According to this view, we can now understand why Moshe chose to modify his father-in-law’s advice. Yitro figured that any of the people Moshe chose could handle general litigation while Moshe should focus on the general religious growth of the population. But Yitro missed one thing. In Judaism everything – even tort law – is a religious experience. Moshe knew how easily a stiff-necked litigant could falter in their religious growth and wanted to make sure he was there in those cases to help everyone grow as best as they could.

וַיִּפֶן כֹּה וָכֹה, וַיַּרְא כִּי אֵין אִישׁ; וַיַּךְ, אֶת-הַמִּצְרִי, וַיִּטְמְנֵהוּ, בַּחוֹל

This pasuk occurs after Moshe has left the luxury of Pharoah’s home and goes to see how his Jewish brethren are fairing as slaves. When he sees an Egyptian man beating a Jew, he is unable to bear the injustice and kills him. I have two questions about this pasuk: 1. Since Moshe Rabinu would not have killed someone without them deserving that punishment, why is he looking around to see if anyone will spot him? This type of cautious behavior is usually indicative of someone who is acting inappropriately, and fears he will be caught. Why should Moshe fear someone witnessing his actions when he is killing for just reasons?  2. The Torah never says that the Egyptian died; rather, it just says that he was struck and then he was buried. Is there an explanation for this omission?

The first question is answered by Rashi. He states that וַיַּרְא כִּי אֵין אִישׁ means that Moshe perceived through רוח הקודש (divine insight) that there was no one among this man’s (possible) descendants would convert to Judaism. The Targum of Yonatan ben Uziel* gives a more poetic description: “Moshe gazed into his knowledge of the future, and carefully examined each generation: there would not survive from this Egyptian a person would convert…”  Therefore, Moshe’s wasn’t afraid of being caught, rather, the Torah is telling us that he carefully examined the Egyptian’s lineage to ensure that no Jews would be lost if he died.

While this addresses the “sneakiness” problem, none of the מפרשים (commentators) address the second question of why the Torah doesn’t say outright that the Egyptian died. Rashi’s comment on the previous pasuk however sheds light on this issue: Rashi explains that the Egyptian had, the previous night, committed a terrible sin (raping the wife of the Jewish man he was beating). The Egyptian, having realized that the husband knew what he had done, was now driving him to exhaustion and (hopefully) his death. It is an well-known idea that רשעים, those who use their potential solely for the bad, aren’t truly alive in this world. While they are alive in terms of breathing and having a pulse, they are not really living: they are not using their energies to grow and serve Hashem. This could be the reason why the Torah omits וימות (and he died); since, being a רשע גמר (completely evil person), he wasn’t spiritually alive when his physical body died.

In our generation, in Jewish law, we no longer enact the death penalty or even corporal punishment. In fact, we are not allowed to make even mental judgments or determinations about others which cast them in a bad light. We make every effort to judge for the good, even concocting bizarre stories to that effect. So what is to be learned from this incident, where an Moshe Rabinu judged another and acted upon it immediately? Perhaps the lesson is that only someone like Moshe Rabinu, someone with רוח הקודש is in a position to do that. Anyone lacking רוח הקודש  is by necessity missing crucial parts of the picture (i.e. what the person’s motivations are? what is Hashem attempting to achieve by this situation?) and thus unable to accurately judge someone. While we still have the right to hold others accountable for their actions, we cannot approach rebuke with the undue sanctimony that we completely understand the situation and its background/ramifications.

Credit: Mechon Mamre for the Hebrew text and Chabad Rashi for Rashi-help.

*This translation was made possible by the similarity of the Aramaic roots to the Hebrew.

הַמַּלְאָךְ הַגֹּאֵל אֹתִי מִכָּל-רָע, יְבָרֵךְ אֶת-הַנְּעָרִים, וְיִקָּרֵא בָהֶם שְׁמִי, וְשֵׁם אֲבֹתַי אַבְרָהָם וְיִצְחָק; וְיִדְגּוּ לָרֹב, בְּקֶרֶב הָאָרֶץ.

The angel who has redeemed me from all evil, bless the lads; and let my name be named in them, and the name of my fathers Abraham and Isaac; and let them grow into a multitude in the midst of the earth.’

Everyone knows the famous Bracha (above) that Yaakov gives to Yosef’s sons, Ephraim and Menashe, but what does it really mean?

The Kli Yakar explains וְיִקָּרֵא בָהֶם שְׁמִי, וְשֵׁם אֲבֹתַי אַבְרָהָם וְיִצְחָק (let my name be named in them, and the name of my fathers Abraham and Isaac) in an interesting way. He says the blessing means that Ephraim and Menashe should be blessed with all the characteristics epitomized by the names “Avraham”, “Yitzchak”, “Yaakov” and “Yisrael”.

• Avraham means אַב-הֲמוֹן גּוֹיִם- the father of a multitude of nations (17:5 בְּרֵאשִׁית). This Bracha means that they should be at the head of all other nations.

• Yitzchak means laughter, blessing them that they should always be filled with happiness.

• Yisrael comes from כִּי-שָׂרִיתָ עִם-אֱלֹהִים וְעִם-אֲנָשִׁים, וַתּוּכָל – for you have fought with angels and with men, and have prevailed. (32:29 בְּרֵאשִׁית) This Bracha means that they should always be able to overcome their internal obstacles.

• Finally Yaakov comes from the saying עקב רב טוב הצפון לצדיקים – because of all the good reserved for Tzaddikim in the future. This Bracha tells them that even though sometimes life seems hard, they should draw strength from knowing that ultimately they will be rewarded for all the good that they do in their lives.

What is most interesting to me is that from this we see the true power of names. Names are not just a way to get a particular person’s attention but contain meaning about who that person is.

I heard from a podcast by Rabbi Berel Wein recently that this is why HaShem called Moshe “Moshe” when tasking him with saving the Jewish people. The Midrash tells us that Moshe was given another name at his birth and the name Moshe was only given by the daughter of Pharaoh. Why would HaShem choose to call Moshe by his Egyptian name?

Rabbi Wein explains the answer simply. When Moshe resisted and said to HaShem that he couldn’t speak well and couldn’t possibly be the man best suited for saving the enslaved Jewish people, HaShem responded by saying “your name is Moshe, which means drawn out [of the water]. It is for this purpose that you were saved from the Nile.”

This, said Rabbi Wein, is the value of reading the names of all the people who perished in the Holocaust. We are reminding ourselves that just as those people and their names had power, so do we. Just like Moshe, we should remember that we have all been saved and placed here for a reason.

We all have our own unique name with our own unique purpose. But we should remember that we are not alone; we have been blessed with all the powers of our ancestors as well.

Shabbat Shalom